CEI Showcase series events focus on VR, video grading

Published September 10, 2018

UB’s Center for Educational Innovation is hosting two events this month as part of its Showcase Series for faculty and staff.

The first is the Technology Showcase, which will highlight faculty who have integrated technological innovations into their curriculum. The Technology Showcase takes place from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday in the Faculty Collaboration Studio, 6 Norton Hall, North Campus, with a focus on Virtual Reality in Higher Education.

Three faculty members will give presentations on how they’re using VR in the classroom:

Stuart Inglis, instructor of pathology and anatomical sciences in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, will present “The Virtual Anatomy Lab: A Pilot Project.” While cadaver dissection remains the gold standard for learning human anatomy, the learning experience can be supplemented through virtual reality technology, which may provide students with a more efficient method of review. Educational specialists at UB are partnering with digital media companies to develop a virtual anatomy learning experience as a pilot project to explore the feasibility of this learning experience in a classroom setting.

Margarete Jadamec, assistant professor of geology, College of Arts and Sciences, will show examples of 3-D immersive virtual reality facilitating scientific discovery in the Earth Sciences. This approach is applied using larger infrastructure CAVES to portable VR platforms such as 3-D TVs or the HTC VIVE, with hardware for the portable 3DVR systems demonstrated.

Richard Lamb, associate professor of learning and instruction in the Graduate School of Education, will present on a training simulator meant for pre-service and in-service teachers to garner experience in dealing with situations such as difficult student behaviors, teaching methods, classroom management in general and other activities as needed.

The vendor for the Technology Showcase is Crosswater Digital Media, a Buffalo-based creative production center specializing in VR, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and cross reality for education and training.

CEI’s Pedagogy Showcase on Sept. 24 will focus on video grading, with a presentation from Jessica Kruger, clinical assistant professor of community health and health behavior in the School of Public Health and Health Professions. The Pedagogy Showcase runs from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Faculty Collaboration Studio in Norton Hall.

Kruger will present on how providing video feedback may help motivate students to hear, see, use and understand a professor’s feedback. The session will be interactive and participants are encouraged to bring a laptop or other device to learn how to start providing video feedback to their students.

RSVPs to both Showcase events are appreciated but not required. Light lunch will be served at both.